Week 6: Busy, Busy, Busy

All and all I think this has been a very busy CD week. This week my plan was to get most of the assignments other than the genres done by Monday and Tuesday so that I could spend the other days working on my genres. I knew that I would need more time to work on my genres so I wanted to makes sure I could have this time. For the most part I think I have finished my work. The more I think about it I want to go back and add a bit more to my letter to the editor genre. I also, need to back and fix my references pages. I was doing everything from the 4th edition APA manual and need to fix it to the 5th edition format.

This week we had to continue our search on EbscoHost and find five more articles. We had to keep reading our mail that we our receiving for our professional mailing list. We needed to complete 2 more genres. Then from the 2 genres that we completed last week we needed to peer review the 2 genres for each person in our group. Then we needed to read “The three “R’s” of Inquiry: Teaching Literacy in the Academic Cultures,” and develop a prompt.

In the library search I was able to find some more useful articles for my research. I was able to find more articles that contributed to my essential question by trying different key words than I used in the first library research. Instead of using communication disorders and self-concept/image etc. I used speech therapy and self-concept/image, counseling etc. and was able to find valuable articles. Then only problem I ran into was this time all but one were abstract articles. So I had to go to the library and get them there. They did not have all of my articles, one had to be sent down for me from the graduate college and the other I need to get off inter-library lone. Next, the assignment was to just keep reading the mail that we are receiving from our professional mailing list. Which I had a hard time signing up for a new mailing list once I changed my essential question. I had signed up for several mailing lists about communication disorders and therapy but I guess many are low volumes because I have not yet received any mail. I am still searching for another one. I still kept my phonological list and I get tons of mail from that list. Next, I had to do two more genres. When doing my genres I ran into a little problem. I really did not know how often SLP’s use techniques in therapy to help increase a child’s self-esteem. I did not know if they could devote a whole session on just improving their self-esteem/image. So I e-mailed Mrs. MCcomas and she told me they can do the intended therapy plan and then maybe do one activity for increasing one’s self-esteem in with the therapy plan. I decided that I would do and interview with the clinician and teacher instead of the lesson plan that I had previously intended to do. The interview is how a SLP can help a teacher use techniques to help build a child’s self-esteem. This way I can provide several techniques on how an SLP can help improve a child’s self-esteem. Then since I chose to do an interview instead of a lesson plan I needed to come up with another genre since I had originally planned to do an interview with the clinician and peers. This was really hard to come up with but from input I got from my e-mail I sent out and from me brainstorming I decided that I would write a letter to the editor in the voice of a parent (not my client’s just a parent who has a child with a communication disorder). She is writing a letter to the editor explaining how her son gets treated because of his CD and how something needs to be done. Then, another one of the assignments was to peer review the 2 genres that we turned in last week. We had to give peer responses to each of person in our groups. I think the outline of the peer review is really helpful because each of the questions will really help you to see if what you published is exactly want you set out to accomplish. The last assignment was to read an article, “The three “R’s” of Inquiry: Teaching Literacy in the Academic Cultures,” and establish a prompt. The article really was informative and helpful since we are doing a research project. It really gave good suggestions on how you need to go about research.

I really can’t believe that week 6 is almost over. I am really beginning to see my research project develop. I know that before we even started the research project and we were just reading the direction of the MRP I was really nervous about completing the genres. Now, I have already have 4 rough drafts completed. It is exciting to start to see this project come together.